BN has no reason to exult over
Ijok by-election result but it will be fatal error for anyone to harbour the
notion that the next general election is “harvest” time for the Opposition

______________
Media
Statement by Lim Kit Siang
_________________

(Parliament, Saturday) : I wish to clarify a Chinese
news report today on my statement yesterday with the heading: “Kit Siang
rules out polls before September”.

What I said was that until
yesterday, I had completely ruled out the possibility of the next general
election being held before August 31 as the hundreds of million of ringgit
that will be splurged all over the country to celebrate our half-a-century
of nationhood would have been planned with an eye to recreate the “feel good
euphoria” which had been so successful in the 2004 general election to give
the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi an unprecedented
victory mandate of 91% of the parliamentary seats.

I said there had been two
schools of thought among the election strategists in Umno and Barisan
Nasional – whether the next general election should be held next year before
end of April when Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim regains his civil right
enfranchisement to stand for elective office or the latter part of this
year.

However, as a result of the
Machap and Ijok by-elections, there is a third school of thought in Umno and
Barisan Nasional, favouring a general election before the 50th Merdeka
Anniversary celebrations on August 31.

It is to be seen as to which
of these three schools of thought would win the ear of Abdullah, although
there are increasing signs of early polls.

The next general election will
be a crucial and critical one for Abdullah. It will also be a crucial and
critical one for the DAP and the Opposition.

There had been diametrically
opposite reactions to the Ijok by-election result, from the claim on the one
hand that the Opposition, in particular Parti Keadilan Rakyat and Anwar
Ibrahim are spent forces to the other extreme, that Abdullah and Barisan
Nasional (BN) will be in big trouble in the next general election.

BN has no reason to exult over
Ijok by-election result but it will be fatal error for anyone to harbour the
notion that the next general election is “harvest” time for the
Opposition.

The next general election is
going to be a very tough and grueling test and challenge not only for the
DAP, Opposition and Barisan Nasional, but also for 50-year democratic
experiment in Malaysia.